Encounter
by aphelion-orion
Summary: After Sora leaves the memory world, Leon has a lot to think about. Riku's appearance doesn't help. At all. [KH: CoM, AU, and crackity LeonRiku goodness]


**Fandom:** KH (CoM)  
**Pairing: **Leon+Riku (hooray for crack!pairings)  
**Rating: **PG (?)  
**Warnings: **slight angst, AU (come on, it's LeonxRiku), boys kissing boys  
**Disclaimer: **If I owned KH, Disney wouldn't be happy with the amount of boysex I'd put into it.  
**Notes: **request fic for renjinn;  
Also, I have no idea of Reverse Rebirth, because I haven't gotten to that part yet. So please don't e-mail me telling me I got Riku's side  
"wrong liek whoa!111" It's an AU. It's a crack pairing. Therefore, I have to twist things a little.

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**Encounter**

When Sora and his strange friends were gone, Leon spent a long time just sitting there, staring off into space. It didn't happen every day, after all, that you met someone whom you had-yet-hadn't seen before and got told that you were just a fragment of that person's memory, given flesh. Leon would have dismissed the entire encounter as some kind of bizarre joke, except that there was a nagging feeling in his gut, telling him that he wasn't being himself. Whatever that meant. Aerith seemed convinced that the boy's story was true, too, and as far as Leon was concerned, she was the only other sensible person around here, so her opinion counted for something.

After who knew how many hours, Leon decided the splitting headache was a warning that he had well and truly filled his quota of existentialist philosophical musings for today. He went out to the town square to clear his head, and almost succeeded in doing so when there was the strange whizzing sound again. Not Sora again, Leon thought. He was done doubting the reality of his existence, thankyouverymuch.

But, as Leon knew all too well, fate was a bitch who just had to prove her existence to him by opening up the portal of flaring bright light again.

The swordsman put a hand to his forehead and sighed. "Sora..."

"Sora?" replied an unfamiliar voice - and this time Leon was sure that it was unfamiliar. "You know Sora?"

Leon blinked against the fading brightness and got his second shock of the day - in front of him stood not Sora, but a boy who looked like Sephiroth's illegitimate lovechild, and Leon would have immediately believed this theory if he hadn't known that Sephiroth was about as far from straight as you could get and devoting his entire time to chasing a semi-willing Cloud all over the place.

Leon decided that notions about a psychopath's sex life were too disturbing to peruse and answered, "If you had shown up two hours ago and asked me that, I would have denied ever having heard of a person named Sora, and until you have the decency to state your name and your business with Sora, I don't feel inclined to say anything more."

The boy blinked at him, obviously needing time to process the sentence. Leon thought if that was the effect sudden verbosity had on people, then perhaps he should say something more often. Maybe it would get Yuffie to shut up.

"I'm Riku," the boy finally informed him, involuntarily tossing his head in an attempt to get the silver hair out of his eyes. He was only partially successful. "My business with Sora is... complicated. But I don't want to hurt him, if that's what you think. Please, tell me... is he here?"

Leon eyed the boy critically; he looked like he could cause a lot of trouble for Sora, especially if he were lying, but for some reason, he didn't think that was the case. The tone in his voice was urgent, and he seemed worried enough. "Very well. Yes, Sora was here. He appeared out of nowhere, just like you, and left a while ago. Again, I do not know how."

"Damn," Riku hissed in frustration, rubbing a hand across his brow. "That's not good." He took a deep breath and continued, "Could you show me where he went?"

Leon's expression turned sour. "Like I said, I don't know how he left. Something went 'fweehpopglitter'-", he waved his hand to illustrate the point, "-and he was gone."

Riku did not appreciate the sarcasm. He seemed about to make a scathing remark in return, but caught himself in time. "I- look, please. Could you just take me to the place where he disappeared? I could go and look by myself, but it'd be a whole lot faster if you helped me out. I really need to hurry."

Leon sighed and pushed two fingers against his scar. "Well, whatever. I suppose I could show you, since I have nothing better to do right now. Just don't get on my nerves if you find nothing."

"Don't worry. I won't."

---

They walked in silence for a while, only interrupted by the occasional heartless that was foolish enough to attack them. Leon discovered his earlier assessment to be correct; the boy seemed quite adept at sword fighting, and could indeed prove a problem if he wasn't as honest as he appeared.

"You never did tell me your name, you know," Riku remarked softly as they walked on.

"It's Leon," he said curtly. "And you never did tell me why you're after Sora. Are you friends?"

He was startled by the slightly bitter chuckle that came from the boy. "Yeah... I suppose we were."

A raised eyebrow. "Were?"

"Stuff happened." Riku shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "Lots of pretty bad stuff. I'm not sure if we're friends anymore. Well, I think of him as my friend, but..." He shrugged again, but this time, it was defeated.

Leon nodded quietly, not prying any further. He could imagine a few scenarios by himself, and anyway, it wasn't really any of his business. Still, he couldn't help but feel like he had to respond to that, somehow. "I'm sure whatever's happened, he has already forgiven you."

Then he blinked, paused and rewound the sentence in his head. Although his mind still protested that today was the first time he had met Sora, it still felt right to say that. It corresponded with the vague, annoying feeling which insisted that he knew Sora somehow, from somewhere.

"Thanks," Riku replied, a small smile lifting the corners of his mouth. "Coming from you, I guess that has to mean something."

"What...?"

"Well, you're part of Sora's memories, right? In that sense, you're a part of him. So I suppose what you're saying can't be all wrong. You don't seem like a comforting kind of guy, anyway." A slight smirk.

Leon wanted to return the gesture, but couldn't. The comment about being a part of Sora's memories was no less unsettling now than when he had first heard of it, and it seemed strange that this person should know... Perhaps he could get some answers from Riku. "You say I'm a piece of his memories. How would you know that? If I'm not really Leon, but another person's memory of him, then how come I have my own memories? How come I remember what I had for breakfast, or what I did yesterday?"

Riku frowned deeply. "I'm not really sure how that memory stuff works, sorry. I don't know exactly how you or this entire place came into being. All I know is that there are guys out there who are responsible for this, and that they're messing with Sora's memories."

"I see." Actually, that answer was anything but satisfying, but that was hardly the boy's fault.

"That's why I'm looking for Sora," Riku explained further. "I know there's a chance that he doesn't want to see me, but I'm worried what will happen to him if he goes on. I don't think he knows what he's gotten himself into, this time. He always takes the things people tell him at face value, even if it's the bad guys. But I'm worried... about what will happen if they just decide to drain his mind of all the memories he has. If they make him forget not only his friends, not just me, but himself."

Leon honestly didn't know how to respond to that. He knew what amnesia could do to a person, but he didn't think telling that to Riku would be very productive. Thankfully, their arrival at the city wall saved him from having to answer.

"Here we are." He motioned to the thick reddish brick wall, which was smooth, even and completely devoid of anything that looked like a gate or an exit. "Like I said, I doubt you'll find anything."

To his immense surprise, the boy walked up to the wall without so much as a searching look, put his hand on a seemingly random place among the bricks and pushed. Sparkling white light flared out from under the palm of his hand, quickly expanding outward. Riku withdrew his hand, and the light faded.

"There's the exit," he said quietly.

Leon came up beside him and experimentally touched the same place. Nothing happened. "Explain," he demanded, irritated that there was some force floating around Traverse Town that he could neither see nor touch.

"There's an ordinary white door right in front of us," Riku said. "I suppose you can't see it because you're tied to this place. Wouldn't be very convenient if the memories those guys dig out of Sora's head decide to venture outside into their castle."

"Wait a minute - what castle?" Leon really hated feeling out of his depth.

"I'm sorry, I've got to be going now," the boy replied. "I've got to hurry, before Sora forgets even the most important things. I did that once, in a way, and it was a terrible feeling... afterwards. Still is, actually. Thank you for helping me out. I promise I'll try to put everything back into order again."

Leon nodded silently, and Riku extended his hand again. The white glow spread again from under his palm, expanding until it created a vaguely door-sized portal framed by light. Leon squinted at it, but couldn't make out any details in the vortex of brightness it seemed to open up to. Certainly nothing that looked like a castle.

Riku withdrew his hand again, but this time, the portal stayed where it was, wavering slightly. He turned back to Leon. "So... umm, goodbye, and thanks for the help... Leon."

"Good luck," Leon replied in an uncharacteristic display of courtesy.

The silver-haired boy turned back to the portal, which had started to flicker a bit more strongly, hesitated, and turned to face Leon again. "Um, listen. Could... could I ask you a favor?"

The raised eyebrow must have sufficed, because he pressed on, "I don't know if we'll meet again... there's a chance something goes wrong. I might not be able to get to Sora before he forgets all about me. So I need you to remember something for me. You're a memory, you can do that, right?"

The swordsman didn't even bother to argue this time. "I suppose."

"Right. So, no matter what happens... if Sora returns here for some reason or if everything here ends up back in Sora's head where it belongs... I need you to remember this, so you can give it to him, and help him remember. Could you, umm, maybe bend down for a second?"

For some reason, Riku had gone slightly red in the face. Leon wanted to point out to him that there was nobody else around to listen in on whatever secret he had to tell, so there was really no need to whisper, but he must have bent down a little, because the boy suddenly reached up, grabbed a handful of his shirt and planted a kiss square on his lips.

Leon, utterly stunned by the action, forgot to do anything - be it to push away or to respond. And before it occurred to him that maybe he _should_ do something, Riku had already pulled away. "Please, don't forget that, okay?"

And before Leon could say anything, he took two steps towards the wall, and was swallowed up by the vortex of blinding light.

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A/N: Damn you, Riku. Damn you and your Sora fixation! Argh. Well, at least they kissed. (sigh) Stubborn boys, the both of them. Sooo... comments? Suggestions? Thoughts of murder? Do tell me.

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End file.
